If you value people who are older—and also your own aging—these entries will help you rejoice in the fullness of this stage of life: its gritty realities, secret joys, hidden spirituality and cherished moments—reasons to be grateful that old age is always a gift from God!
My viewpoints about today’s events range across a vast emotional landscape. My emotional states seem like small energies, each one hoping it might explode into the prevailing thought that will guide me through the coming days. Discernment seems difficult. Maybe you feel the same…? The outlook that gathers around foreboding isn’t that helpful. Emotions that traipse among PollyannishMORE...
(If you’ve followed these entries for awhile, you’ll recognize the theme right away: “Take care of your pastor.” Today a little more oomph and currency to those thoughts. Looking ahead at the place of this vocation in our personal and societal well-being.) The coming days/weeks may turn into trying times, individually and for our nation. Whether there will be disagreements, discomforts orMORE...
(Right about now, we’re coming to the end of a between-Presidents period. In a little while, the priorities of the now-former [president] will yield to those of the former former [president]. What we could only imagine will soon fill today’s news. In the meantime, some thoughts….) Emotionally speaking, these several weeks—from November 6th to January 20th—have been relatively quiet. What has beenMORE...
(Today something a little different: My take on an imagined conversation with you, consisting of questions—and answers—that we might engage if we were sitting around a quiet fire with a cup of hot chocolate and leftover Christmas goodies. What’s virtual trying to find what’s virtuous…?) YOU: So, Bob… I read your blogs and wonder how much of your writing is AI-dependent? ME: Surely you jest. I’veMORE...
(Recently I wandered through the New Non-Fiction section of our local library, and happened on this new book by Northwestern University political science professor Wendy Pearlman. I thought it would be a scholarly treatise about Syrian refugees and the concept of home. Instead, the book has both troubled and encouraged me about what some of us might face in the coming political landscape. I’mMORE...
(Today’s entry may be one example of the sonder phenomenon I named in a previous blog. My realization here: How many people around me are quietly carrying agonies of body, soul or spirit, in ways that deserve my response.) Ribbons tied around trees…. In our locale, they’re yellow and red, helping us remember the sadness of a high schooler’s death in an auto accident, and a young man dealing withMORE...
(“Field Notes” feels like a good way to characterize or capture what I learn in the moments when I’m out and about, nibbling at the edges of the Spirit’s revelations. Today’s notes assemble around sonder….) Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Chris and I took an Amtrak train to Minneapolis. While waiting to board for the return trip, we got into an enjoyable personal conversation with two otherMORE...
(I’m still noodling about how best to take positive, effective actions to meet the challenges of the coming days in our nation’s history. Today another thought, arising from Hebrews 10:24. “Let us consider how to *provoke one another to love and good deeds.” [NRSV]) Buried in the middle of Lectionary 33 (the 26th Sunday after Pentecost, Cycle B), the sentence above encourages one way of thinkingMORE...
Footnotes for “Holy Spirit as normal” (To expand the subject just a bit, here are the background thoughts that framed my recent blog about the Holy Spirit. Yes, this matter might be bigger than at first meets the writing/reading eye….) Uncertain times – A newer form of biblical interpretation proposes that much of Scripture was authored, proclaimed and taught in times of great societal stress—aMORE...
In these uncertain times, it’s comforting to think of the Spirit as Great Surpriser, or Master of the Unexpected. When we least anticipate her, the Holy Ghost visits our work tables and emotional perches, offering the welcome grace of sudden rescue, motivation or inspiration. A wonderful feature of Trinitarian theology, this view of the Spirit’s role can foster both hope and gratitude. But whatMORE...
BOB SITZE has filled the many years of his lifework in diverse settings around the United States. His calling has included careers as a teacher/principal, church musician, writer/author, denominational executive staff member and meat worker. Bob lives in Wheaton, IL.